UKAIS Conference 2012

I have just come back from presenting at the annual UKAIS conference PhD consortium. Last year I had a lovely time with everyone and this year was even better. The conference was held at New College Oxford and we also stayed on the grounds. The weather was glorious and the college was beautiful. It turns out that some scenes from Harry Potter were filmed there and scenes from the book His Dark Materials were based there. As I explored the grounds I could hear the choir singing in the chapel and it really added to the atmosphere.

 We had breakfast and lunch in the Great Hall and I really did feel like I was at Hogwarts.

My presentation at the conference actually went really well. I usually get so nervous when I present my work that I sometimes even have difficultly speaking, but the facilitators made me feel very comfortable and were very positive about my research. One of them made a comment that I was "pretty much there" and we both agreed that I still had to fine tune some aspects of my research. I left the conference with a regained sense of hope that I can actually finish my work in time and to a high standard. I had a really nice time and hopefully will be able to return next year with a full conference paper.

The Knitting Circle

Things are getting pretty crazy as I've only got a few months left of my funding, so I'm in the middle of analyzing the data I've collected. I'm still trying to keep up to date with all the new literature surrounding my subject but decided to take a break and read The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. I thought that it would be light enough to give my brain a rest but still on topic so it didn't pull me out of thesis.

The Knitting Circle turned out to be more beneficial to me than I had originally thought. As I am using postmodernism with an interpretivist stance to read my data I believe that reality is constructed by little stories and everyone has their own unique world view. The Knitting Circle relates to my research as it tells the individual stories of each character within the group. As my undergrad degree is in English literature using a narrative helped me to cement some of the ideas that everyone has their own little stories to tell.
This has also been beneficial to me as it shown me that inspiration can be found anywhere. Sometimes it's important to take a side step out of the typical academic resources to be open minded in your approach to research.

The view through a kaleidoscope

Analyzing data is like looking through a kaleidoscope -

"Kaleidoscopes consist of many coloured fragments which when turned change pattern and configuration and are unstable" (Waring and Skoumpopoulou, 2011).

Knitted Kittens Craft Club

Here is the flyer for the next Knitted Kittens on 6th March (design by the talented Sophie Daniels). This time we will be at the Black Lion pub, Salford. The Black Lion has recently been taken over by an artist co-op known as Future Artists. This is something that I hold a deep amount of respect for so am really excited that we are being made welcome there. We still love the Ape and Apple (they are fantastic too) but unfortunately couldn't conveniently accommodate us this month so we are trying out somewhere new. Be sure to pay us a visit.

Vitae Workshop - The Effective Researcher the End is in Sight

Last week I attended another Vitae workshop called The Effective Researcher the End is in Sight. It was a workshop specifically designed for PhD researchers nearing the end of their study. They had a session on how to survive and what to expect from your viva. Then later gave us useful information on applying for jobs and what employers look for. They had really interesting guest speakers and the day flew by. It was really useful and I'm so glad I went.
I feel like I'm not at all ready for the end of my study but I do really feel like I'm getting there. One of the most important things I took away from the day was to remember not to get overwhelmed and to approach everything one piece at a time.

Sugar Paper Zines!

How lucky am I?! Seleena from Sugar Paper very kindly sent me copies of the missing issues of Sugar Paper Zine. I've been reading them ever since. They are all brilliant, really fun and inspiring. If you are into craft or DIY culture then I can't recommend these zines enough.

Check out the cool Hello Kitty tape that was on the package.

If you want to get your own copies of Sugar Paper Zine (and you should) then they can be found at: http://sugarpaper.bigcartel.com/

An Intro to Coding at Madlab

Today I went to An Intro to Coding presented at Madlab by Geek Girls Manchester. They introduced me to this fantastic website called www.codecademy.com with all these (fairly) simple exercises to teach basic coding. I'm still getting my head around a lot of it but will definitely continue practice working on it.

Here's my awesome name tag that they gave us to wear "Hello my name is...":

It was a great afternoon. Thanks to the team at Geek Girls Manchester for setting up the afternoon and for being so helpful.